This report argues that the new UN secretary-general should take the General Assembly's endorsement of responsibility to protect as a mandate and as a mission statement. And the United States and others must take steps to bolster UN action and be available when the UN is not.

The conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region increasingly threatens two neighboring countries—Chad and the Central African Republic. Here is a look at the major actors and how each country’s government has addressed—or exacerbated—the crisis.

As the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region escalates, neighbors Chad and the Central African Republic face growing instability spurred by their own rebel groups. At the center of the spreading conflict is Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

John Prendergast of the International Crisis Group and Erin Mazursky, executive director of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, discuss the escalating crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, Chad, and the Central African Republic.

In this report the US Institute for Peace (USIP) details proceedings at its Sudan Peace Forum in December 2006 in which Dr Chester Crocker and Dr Francis Deng co-chaired a discussion of overlapping crises in Darfur, Chad and the Central African Republic. The meeting was prompted by recent comments of the United Nations Under Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland, who warned that the crises in Darfur, Chad, and CAR are "intimately linked" and could lead to a "dangerous regional crisis."

In this report Amnesty International says that thousands of women have been raped in Sudan and Chad since the armed conflict began in Darfur in 2003. There have certainly been thousands. The names of 250 women who had been raped, and harrowing information about their cases, were recorded by Amnesty International on a 10-day visit to just three refugee camps in Chad in 2004. Recent months have seen a dramatic increase in the numbers of rapes as Darfur has been plunged into new fighting. In just one camp in Darfur, Kalma camp, the International Rescue Committee reported that rapes of women rose from under four to 200 a month during five weeks in July and August 2006. Overall, despite the presence of an African Union peacekeeping force (African Union Mission in Sudan, AMIS) and international awareness of what is happening in Darfur, in 2006 rapes and other violence against women and girls have increased, not diminished.

In this report Amnesty International says that the presence of an African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (AMIS) since 2004 has failed to stop the mass killings, rapes and forcible displacement of civilians in the region. Amnesty says that despite the presence already in Sudan of 10,000 UN peacekeepers, whose mandate was extended to include Darfur by the UN Security Council in August 2006, the Darfur region is now so insecure that one third of those affected are inaccessible to humanitarian agencies. Amnesty International’s agenda for effective protection of civilians sets out a 16-point programme that should be implemented by any peacekeeping force in Darfur.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is pushing for a hybrid UN-AU peacekeeping force in Sudan’s Darfur region. Khartoum has "agreed in principle" to such an operation, but details such as the size of the force remain to be determined.

Princeton N. Lyman says that despite calls for military intervention in Darfur, he does not believe that such an approach would be practical. He hopes the U.S. special envoy to Darfur will be able to get the parties back to the negotiating table.

Roberta Cohen of the Brookings Institution discusses the expanded African Union peacekeeping force in Sudan's Darfur region. She says the AU force, besides being undermanned and underfunded, is seriously limited by the actions of the Sudanese government.

Sudan continues to refuse a UN peacekeeping force in Darfur. As pressure to act mounts, the international community faces a question: Does its “responsibility to protect” trump Sudan’s national sovereignty?

To understand the drivers of conflict and the keys to sustainable peace in eastern Sudan, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), in partnership with the Nairobi Peace Initiative Africa, hosted a discussion workshop in Nairobi in August 2006. This briefing summarizes the main discussions and the background to the conflict.

CFR Experts Guide

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

The authors argue that the United States has responded inadequately to the rise of Chinese power and recommend placing less strategic emphasis on the goal of integrating China into the international system and more on balancing China's rise.

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

2014 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2014 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »